1st Edition

Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality The Art of Augmenting Imagination

By Rob Morgan Copyright 2025
    310 Pages 2 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    310 Pages 2 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    310 Pages 2 Color & 10 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Also available as eBook on:

    This is a clear, accessible manual of storytelling techniques and learning activities for spatial computing, augmented reality and mixed reality. It covers the key skills that the next generation of digital storytellers will need, providing readers with practical tools for creating digital stories and adventures out in the real world.

    Drawing on more than a decade of experience, veteran immersive storyteller Rob Morgan provides strategies and techniques for augmenting players and places with digital narrative. Readers will try out key ideas through a range of practical exercises, building up their own portfolio of augmented/spatial narrative projects.

    Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality provides insight on everything from narrative pacing to conditional and emergent storytelling for augmented/spatial technology. Each chapter addresses key questions about the affordances - and ethics - of augmenting players' realities, helping students and practitioners explore this new storytelling frontier.

    This book will be invaluable to students of game design, experience design and interactive narrative. It provides theories, best practices and case studies also relevant to creative professionals in games, XR, immersive theatre, theme parks and brand experience.

    Preface: Play along

    INTRODUCTION

    Section 1: LEARNING FROM VR

    1.0 - Learning from VR: Getting Started

    1.1 - SEEING in VR

    SEEING ≠ BELIEVING

    SEEING WITH AGENCY

    DIEGETIC AND FOVEATED SEEING

    REBELLIOUS SEEING

    From SEEING in VR to IMAGINING and STAGING in Augmented/Spatial

    1.2 - BEING in VR

    OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE

    PROTAGONIST-AGNOSTIC VR IDENTITIES

    CHARACTERISED VR IDENTITIES

    IDENTITY-DISCOVERY

    From BEING in VR to IDENTITY-BUILDING and BEING-THERE in Augmented/Spatial

    1.3 - BEING SEEN in VR

    FEELING SEEN

    THE SWAYZE EFFECT

    BEING (UN)SEEN

    From BEING SEEN in VR to BEING SELF-CONSCIOUS and OCCUPYING SPACE in Augmented/Spatial

    1.4 - JUXTAPOSITIONS: Moving from Virtual Realities to Augmented/Spatial Realities

    PARALLEL REALITIES

    UNIFIED SENSORY MODELS

    THE DRAGON’S CAVE

    HYBRID REALITIES

    Section 2: AUGMENTING PLAYERS

    2.0 - Augmenting Players: Getting Started

    2.1 - Imagining

    ACTIVE CREATION OF BELIEF

    BEGINNING AUGMENTATION

    Plausibility

    Desireability

    Faits Accompli

    2.2 - Identity-Building

    NOT QUITE YOURSELF

    PROTAGONIST-AGNOSTIC VS. ROLEPLAY IDENTITIES

    Protagonist-Agnostic Identities: Possible Selves

    Roleplay Identities: Performance of Self

    Five C’s of Compelling Roleplay Characterisation

    THREE TECHNIQUES FOR BUILDING AUGMENTED IDENTITY

    Discovering IDENTITY: Augmented Anagnorisis

    IDENTITY-DISCOVERY IN IMMERSIVE THEATRE

    Asserting IDENTITY: Mise-en-self

    Blending IDENTITIES & Building Complicity

    ONGOING IDENTITIES

    2.3 - Self-Consciousness

    THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN

    DIEGETIC SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

    AUGMENTED SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

    PLAYER-AS-PERFORMER

    A WORD OF CAUTION: AUGMENTING/APPROPRIATING OTHERS

    UNRELIABLE PROTAGONISTS

    DISCOVERING OTHERS

    2.4 - From AUGMENTING PLAYERS to AUGMENTING PLACES

    SECTION 3: AUGMENTING PLACES

    3.0 - Augmenting Places: Getting Started

    PLACE VS SPACE

    LOCATIVE CATEGORIES

    Location-Agnostic Experiences

    Location-Specific Experiences

    Generic Places

    Location-Portable Design

    Roomscale/At-home

    Table-Scale

    3.1 - STAGING

    ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE

    3.1.1 - General Augmented STAGING

    GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF HYBRID SPATIONARRATIVES

    GENERAL AUGMENTED STAGING: LAYOUT

    Augmenting Spatial Elements

    Paths

    Landmarks

    Hubs

    Edges

    Districts

    GENERAL AUGMENTED STAGING: SPATIAL PACING

    Agency and Pacing

    Diegetic and Nondiegetic Durations

    Conditional Pacing

    Roomscale/At-home Pacing

    Digital Pacing for Real Objects

    Emergence and Serendipity

    GENERAL AUGMENTED STAGING: BOUNDARIES

    Videogame Boundaries

    Augmenting Boundaries

    Foveating Space

    Diegeticizing Boundaries

    Social Boundaries

    3.1.2 - Location-Specific STAGING

    LOCATION-SPECIFIC STAGING: SURFACING LAYERS OF HISTORY

    It Happened Here

    LOCATION-SPECIFIC STAGING: LAYOUT

    The Language of Space

    Uncritical Paths: Goldeneye

    Augmenting Spatial Elements: The Location-Specific Approach

    Paths

    Landmarks

    Hubs

    Edges

    Districts

    LOCATION-SPECIFIC STAGING: SPATIAL PACING

    Conditional Pacing: Spatial Gates

    Game State

    Digital Pacing with Physical Performers

    LOCATION-SPECIFIC STAGING: BOUNDARIES

    Foveating Space

    3.2 - Being There

    FOUND YOU

    BEING THERE THROUGH NAVIGATION

    EGOCENTRIC AND ALLOCENTRIC

    SPATIAL AGENCY: FORKS

    Distinct

    Navigable

    Asymmetrical

    Expressive

    SPATIAL AGENCY: HUBS

    3.3 - Occupying Space

    FINDING YOURSELF

    SPATIAL SUBJECTIVITY: VANTAGE POINTS

    SPATIAL SUBJECTIVITY: PLAYER-AS-PERFORMER

    MAPS OF OURSELVES

    COMMON GROUND

    Section 4: DIVERGENT REALITIES

    JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE

    BETTER THAN LIFE: CUSTOMISED REALITIES AND AI

    BUT IS IT ARt?: AR GRAFFITI, AND NON-ZERO-SUM CULTURES

    AR BODIES, AR SELVES: RIGHTS IN AN AUGMENTED ERA

    HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN IT ENDS?

    Appendix A: Inclusion, Accessibility and Safety

    Appendix B: Sliders for Defining Augmented/Spatial Experiences

    Appendix C: Example Concept Development Framework

    Glossary

    Biography

    Rob Morgan is a writer, experience designer, digital dramaturg and founder and creative director of London-based AR design studio Playlines. Rob writes and narrative-designs award-winning VR, AR and spatial computing experiences, and has helped create story worlds and immersive experiences for some of the world’s largest licences, attractions and cultural institutions. He is a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London and lectures widely on immersive design, storytelling and AR ethics.

    "A crucial exploration of how augmented reality can redefine storytelling through the blending the digital with the physical. The book is an essential guide for understanding AR and for navigating and shaping the future of immersive experiences."

    Leighton Evans, Associate Professor in Media Theory, Swansea University.

    "A vision for storytelling in the coming age of spatial computing. Offering a mix of practical guidance and speculative theory, Morgan equips readers for the narrative possibilities ahead. A primer and a gateway to next-gen storytelling in virtual worlds of all kinds."

    Jay Springett, Researcher & Worldrunner.